Memories of a Widowed Host
by thetemptedangel
Summary: Years have past since the host club days, and Haruhi reminisces as she tries to get on with her life. Rated to be safe, character death. HaruhiTamaki, HaruhiHikaru, HaruhiKaoru, HaruhiKyouyo, HaruhiMori, HaruhiOC
1. The Invitation

The orange sun sank to the horizon, illuminating the beach with a fiery brilliance. Haruhi gazed at it wistfully, memories of her host days stirring in her mind. The host club had split years ago, and though they corresponded occasionally, things were never the same. They couldn't be. The hosts had grown up, but the host club had not.

And then she met _him_ again.

_Haruhi rushed off the bus at her bus stop, eager to see her father after a few weeks at college. But something important must have happened in those few weeks, for there was a crowd gathered around her apartment. Haruhi tapped a woman at the outer edge of the crowd._

"_Excuse me ma'am, what happened here?" she asked. The woman beamed at her._

"_He's here! The most eligible bachelor in Japan is _here_! Can you believe it? In the suburbs!" Haruhi managed a weak smile, trying to determine who the current most eligible bachelor in Japan was. And why would he be _here_? Then Haruhi remembered her rather attractive neighbor claimed to be the daughter of a royal. She hadn't believed the girl, but now… her eyes widened, then she groaned. Not _him_ again._

"_Haruhi!" the blonde called as soon as he saw her. A few girls around her looked enviously at her._

"_Tamaki-senpai," Haruhi muttered sullenly._

Haruhi allowed herself a small smile as she remembered this. Even then Tamaki had been an annoying idiot, though he had matured considerably since his host club days.

_Tamaki smiled at her. "I'm not "senpai" anymore." Haruhi shrugged._

"_Why are _you_ here?" she asked, her tone accusing. For a moment Tamaki looked offended, but then his smile widened._

"_A reunion! We're going to have a host club reunion! I came to invite you personally…"_

"_When?" Haruhi asked succinctly._

"_Two weeks from now…"_

"_Can't," Haruhi interrupted again. "I have exams that week." Tamaki smile faltered. The girls around them glared at Haruhi. Haruhi spun on the annoying crowd. "Go away!"_

_Resentfully, the crowd dispersed, sneaking glances back at Tamaki, who answered each glance with a sincere smile._

"_Are you going to invite me in?" Tamaki asked at last, gesturing toward the apartment. Haruhi blushed – she had forgotten her manners once more._

"_Yeah, come in," she mumbled. Tamaki cheerfully followed her._

"_Do you have any of that instant coffee?" he asked. Haruhi rolled her eyes, then nodded, and went to prepare coffee._

_When she returned, her father was, for once, having a civilized conversation with Tamaki._

"_He says there's gonna be a reunion for your little host club," Fujioka-san said, motioning toward Tamaki, who grinned._

"_You're dad says he doesn't mind," Tamaki said._

"_He's not the one who has to take the exams," Haruhi replied. "I _need_ to get good grades on those exams."_

"_You need a break," Fujioka-san said. Haruhi looked to her father._

"_Dad, didn't we have this discussion before? I can take care of myself." Fujioka-san looked embarrassedly down._

"_Yes," he said meekly._

"_We can reschedule the reunion, then," Tamaki offered._

"_But if everyone else already agreed to this date…" Haruhi tried. Tamaki blushed slightly._

"_You're the first one I asked. I wanted to make sure you could come." Haruhi shrugged in defeat._

"_Okay then…"_

Haruhi laughed quietly to herself. That reunion was the craziest day of her life. Aside from her wedding, of course.


	2. Reunion

Haruhi made herself a cup of instant coffee. Her friends had always loved it – to the point that they had created an enormous instant-coffee fountain for the host club reunion. She still remembered her own shock at being introduced to it.

"_Haruhi!" Honey greeted her as soon as she arrived. It took her a moment to recognize him – he had grown considerably, but still retained a few of his boyish looks. Haruhi smiled._

"_Honey!" Honey tugged at her arm._

"_Look at what we got!" Haruhi followed him into an enormous chamber, at the center of which was the most intricately designed fountain she had ever seen – filled with instant coffee. Hikaru and Kaoru were scooping up coffee from it. "It's instant coffee!"_

"_No way!" Haruhi breathed unbelievingly. In her days as a host, she had seen many a complete waste of money, but this was beyond credible. _Rich bastards_, she thought._

"_Isn't it amazing?" Honey asked._

"_What it is is a complete waste of money," Kyouya said frankly, coming up to them. Honey pouted._

"_Is not!" he said. He went and joined the twins._

"_Hello Kyouya," Haruhi said, smiling. Kyouya eyed her critically._

"_You've changed. You're feminine." Haruhi pretended to look offended._

"_Well, I _am_ a girl, you know."_

"_You are?" Kyouya asked coolly, before making his way to a table laden with sweets. Haruhi glared at his retreating back, before smiling. He hadn't changed at all._

_Suddenly there was a loud trumpeting. In rode … an ostrich pulling a carriage? Tamaki sat stiffly in the carriage. Haruhi gasped, before breaking into laughter. Tamaki looked down at her and sniffed haughtily._

"_For your information," he informed her, "this is the latest in fashionable transport." He couldn't hold his conceited expression for long; he smiled. "Care for a ride?" Haruhi smiled and climbed in._

_She couldn't believe it. She was at a host club reunion, riding around an instant-coffee fountain in an ostrich-pulled carriage. She laughed, and Tamaki smiled down at her._

Haruhi dug through her albums and finally pulled out her reunion album. The very first picture was of the Tamaki, Honey, Hikaru, and Kaoru greedily drinking from the beautiful fountain, next Kyouya and Mori, who had had the manners to get a cup and drink from it. She laughed. They had demanded that she get rid of the picture, which made them look like "uncivilized commoners", but she had kept it, so she could laugh at it ever after.

The next picture was of her ostrich ride. She looked so happy in that picture – a happiness that wouldn't last long. _No!_ she scolded herself. She wasn't going to think unhappy thoughts right when she was dwelling on the happiest moments of her life. But even that reunion had brought so much sorrow…

_The ex-host club members sat around a large circular table, chatting and reminiscing about their high school days. _

"_Remember that one time Tamaki spilled coffee on Honey's bunny?" Hikaru asked, grinning. Honey was outraged._

"_What? How did I never know about this?"_

"_Mori told you that your bunny was trying to drink coffee, and you believed it," Kaoru said, laughing. Honey blushed furiously._

"_I… believed that?" Kyouya nodded._

"_You were rather gullible in those days." Honey pretended to hide his face in shame._

"_Goes to show how much I've matured," he said._

"_We all have," Tamaki said. "As have our relationships." He gave Haruhi a significant glance, but, oblivious as always, Haruhi simply popped a strawberry into her mouth._

"_Except Haruhi," Kaoru, who had noticed the glance, said, "She's as oblivious as ever." Haruhi looked up._

"_What?" Tamaki quickly shook his head._

_"Nothing." The group continued thier friendly conversation for a few minutes, before Tamaki stood up and tapped his wine glass with his spoon. "I have an announcement to make. I called this reunion because, most likely, I will never see you guys again." Their attention was sparked._

_"Is it bad?" Kaoru ventured._

_"My mother is fatally ill," Tamaki admitted quietly._

"_There's something else, isn't there?" Haruhi asked apprehensively. Tamaki nodded._

"_My grandmother refuses to pay the expenses unless I get engaged to the heiress of Grand Tonnerre – Éclair Tonnerre. I will most likely never return. So let's enjoy today to its fullest!"_

_His jovial behavior was lost on his friends._

Haruhi sighed. She should have known from the beginning that a commoner such as herself could never be good enough for Tamaki.


End file.
